Billionaire businessman Marc Lasry has launched a blistering lawsuit against a former employee, claiming she subjected him to a years-long harassment campaign.
Lasry, 65, CEO of investment firm Avenue Capital and former co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, claims one of his former executives, Gina Strum, threatened to extort him for $50 million.
His lawsuit alleges that Strum threatened to spread false information about him and make things “really, really, really ugly” for his company unless she was paid off, while allegedly sending him a series of bizarre and flirtatious text messages.
According to Lasry, these texts included photos of Strum in low-cut tops, telling him, “My life doesn’t really work without you.” Stop punishing me’; and “You are a love bug to me.”
“And one more thought: if I had to go through therapy and all that shit just to talk to you. At least you could kiss me. Then we would know everything,” read another text from the lawsuit.
Marc Lasry, 65, CEO of investment firm Avenue Capital and former co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, has filed a blistering lawsuit against a former employee who claims she subjected him to a years-long harassment campaign.
Gina Strum, a former director of Lasry’s Avenue Capital, allegedly sent the CEO a flurry of inappropriate messages, including calling him her “lovebug.”
According to Strum’s LinkedIn profile, she worked as a managing director at Avenue Capital from 2009 to 2017, but it is unclear when Lasry says the alleged harassment began.
But Lasry said the director’s antics escalated over the years, including sending photos of himself and texts described in his lawsuit as “personal, obsessive and simply inappropriate.”
The complaint alleged that Strum would tell Lasry, who has a net worth of about $1.9 billion, that he was “cute” and compliment his appearance, and tell him that one of his black turtlenecks had hair “sweat.”
She also continued to keep Lasry in the loop when she went to the doctor to be examined for “Girly bits,” according to the reported lawsuit.
Lasry claims he rejected Strum’s advances, and when she told him she was “definitely lonely and flirting with you,” he claims he responded that he would be her friend, but “it could be more than that never be.’
The complaint says Strum escalated until she threatened to make explosive accusations against Lasry and Avenue Capital.
Lawyers for Strum say the exchanges escalated to the point where Avenue admitted it would be better to pay Strum a settlement in 2013 rather than risk having her allegations made public.
Strum, who has denied Lasry’s claims, allegedly told Lasry that he was “sweating” through his turtleneck and when she went to the doctor to be examined for “Girly bits,” according to the reported lawsuit
Strum reportedly received a severance package, but Avenue agreed to continue working with her in a consulting role as part of their agreement, “rather than face undue consequences from a public report of false allegations,” the company said.
The new lawsuit claims they “suffered from Ms. Strum’s conduct because they concluded that if they did not, she would carry out her malicious threats to harm them.”
Over the next few years, Strum withdrew her threats if she “got attention and money,” but would then “renew her threats and malicious behavior” if that stopped, reports said Fortune.
In 2019, Strum signed a lucrative consulting deal with Avenue for $750,000. The company continued to make installment payments until earlier this year, when it “renewed its outrageous threats,” the complaint said.
Lasry is seeking unspecified damages, claiming Strum’s antics damaged his business relationships, and is seeking to ban her from having any further contact with him or those involved.
Strum then reportedly demanded $50 million and threatened to file a harassment suit against Lasry, sending him another text message that read: “This is going to be a movie – how one woman stood up to abuse and opened one of the biggest stores on the street collapsed.’
Lasry’s lawsuit seeks unspecified damages as he claims Strum’s antics damaged his business relationships while seeking to ban her from having further contact with him or those involved.
A lawyer for Strum, Daniel Kaiser, told Bloomberg that she denies the allegations against her and claimed Lasry took “retaliatory action” against her.
Kaiser called it “blatantly fabricated and retaliatory” and “a continuation of his attempt to control and harass Ms. Strum.”